I didn’t need silence to think.
Silence was simply what followed when everyone else realized the room belonged to me.
The command floor was buried beneath reinforced concrete and old money constructed back when discretion mattered more than display. No windows. No art.
Just screens, cables, and the hum of systems that had never once failed me.
Three men waited at the table.
They did not look at one another. They did not speak.
They knew better.
“Their location is confirmed,” one of them said carefully. “All assets are in place.”
I nodded once.
No rush.
The reports scrolling across the screen frozen accounts, defecting partners, Elena Russo’s disappearance were already stale. Information lost its power the moment people believed it surprised me.
It didn’t.
Chaos outside never m
